Probably during the Middle Pleistocene, it entered North America, giving rise to Cervalces scotti. ![]() Evolutionary history Ĭervalces latifrons first appeared during the late Early Pleistocene. Further remains of Cervalces latifrons have been recovered from Sénèze (Haute-Loire, France), Mauer (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), Bilshausen (Niedersachsen, Germany), Mosbach (Hessen, Germany), Süßenborn (Thüringen, Germany), Ranica (Lombardy, Italy), Leffe (Lombardy, Italy) and Crostolo Creek (Emilia-Romagna, Italy) and extensively from Siberia. It is believed to have fed on rough herbage and plants growing around lakes and swamps. Like its living relatives, it is likely to have lived a solitary life. It probably avoided deciduous forests because of the inconvenience that would be caused by its wide antlers when moving among bushes and saplings. It is believed that Cervalces latifrons resembled its modern moose relations and lived in tundra, steppes, coniferous forests and swamps. This is exposed at intervals along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk and forms low cliffs between Cromer and Great Yarmouth. In the United Kingdom, it is known only from the Cromer Forest Bed Formation. latifrons had a prehensile upper lip like living moose.ĭistribution and habitat Antlers in Tübingenįossil remains of this deer are known from northern Europe and Asia but have not been found in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy south of the Apennines, Croatia or Greece. In comparison to the modern moose, the nares are not retracted and are similar to those of other deer. It was about the same mass and far taller than a modern bull American bison ( Bison bison) and could have weighed about twice as much as the Irish elk ( Megaloceros giganteus) but is much less well known to the general public, probably because the span of its antlers at 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) was smaller than that of the Irish elk. In some cases, this species could have weighed perhaps up to 1,200 kg (2,600 lb) with the largest specimens perhaps reaching 2.5 m (8.2 ft) at the shoulder. latifrons was around 1,000 kg (2,200 lb), putting it around 30% heavier than C. latifrons is estimated to have reached 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) to 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) high at the shoulder. The average sized Cervalces latifrons was quite a bit more massive than other large moose-like deer, such Cervalces scotti, the largest races of the extant moose and the Irish elk ( Megaloceros giganteus), despite some overlap in shoulder height, and is the largest deer ever known to exist. It has been suggested that due to their shape, it is unlikely that they were used for combat. The antlers of the males had longer beams than living moose, with large vertically-oriented flat palmate lobes with a variable number of points. It was later placed in the genus Cervalces which it shares with the also extinct Cervalces scotti from North America. The morphology of the animal as deduced from this fossil and from others later found in this formation and in continental Europe differs little from modern moose. ![]() The specific name "latifrons" refers to the wide frontal bone of this large species. Johnson, who retained the specimen in his collection, named it Cervus latifrons, Cervus being the only genus of deer known at that time. A frontal bone attached to part of an antler of a previously unknown species of deer was found at low tide on the beachfront at Happisburgh, Norfolk, in the "Forest Bed". ![]() History of discovery Fossils in BergamoĬervalces latifrons was first described by Mr Randall Johnson in 1874. It was considerably larger than living moose, placing it as one of the largest deer to have ever lived. It is thought to be the ancestor of the modern moose, as well as the extinct North American Cervalces scotti. Cervalces latifrons, the broad-fronted moose, or the giant moose was a giant species of deer that inhabited the Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch.
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